Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-11-17
ON UNCLE SANS FARM.
An Irish Servant Girl Details Her Experi-
ence in This Country.


and would be glad to get back to
Ireland think most of the girls feel
the same way. have always made
good wages, but money is not every
thing. / save my money and so do
most of the girls know, for we never
know when we may have to send it
home to help the old folks. Times are
hard over there. And sometimes a
girl will want to bring out brother
or sister whom she thinks can do bet
ter over here. They mostly don't and
wish they were back, but we try to
help them all the same. As a general
thing, girls are satisfied with their
wages. 1t is easy to change if they
are not, for there are plenty of places.
Some girls do not save much, but
spend most all their wages for inery.
do not think they know how to shop
very well. They think more of how
thing looks than of the quality.
have lived where there was cook,
but never heard of her taking any
money from the store people for get
ting them to serve food to the house.
do not believe it is general thing.
The mistress attends to all those things
herself. 1t may be the case in very
rich families, where the lady does not
want to be bothered with seeing to
anything, as the cook is more like a
housekeeper.
We get every other Sunday and
every other Thursday off for ourselves,
from after dinner or lunch in the mid
die of the day till 10 o'clock. think
10 o'clock is late enough for any girl
to be out. | think they are mostly all
we are better off than shop-girls and
factory, who have to work all the
time, and only have their evenings to
themselves. Besides, | don't think
housework is so tiresome as standing
all day or running machine, and it
is healthier.
In most houses girls are allowed to
see their friends at suitable times, but
very few ladies like to have men hang
ing around the kitchen. | don't
wonder at it, am sure. The lady
mostly comes down the last thing at
night to give orders for breakfast, or
about the washing, or something, and
it is not very nice to meet a great
hulking man sitting there and per-
haps smoking, for they are very free
and easy.
have heard girls say that if they
wanted male company they had to see
them out of the house. And that is
bad, too, for it keeps them up late.
The food we get is mostly good.
plain, but good; but have heard girls
tell about places where they have been
where they scarcely got enough to eat,
bad as it was, and that, too, in houses
where you would think that there was
the best of everything and plenty of
it. Some people want to put all their
money on their backs, and so, of
course, the table suffers.
| | have known of people who had
splendid house and furnished elegant,
and always dressed in the height of
style, and yet the table was the mean
est you ever saw. If they have such
poor food themselves, of course the
girl can't expect any better. There
was one family who changed girls
four or five times month, and at last
they couldn't get anybody to live with
them except a greenhorn right off the
vessel.
There is a good deal of gossip goes
on between the girls about the people
they live with. All their affairs are
pretty we'll known. You see, the girls
don't have much to interest them, and
so they sort of take an interest in the
concerns of the family they live with.
That is sociable girls do. Some girls
don't care brass button about the
people so long as they get their money
all right. German and Swede girls
are like that. Irish girls are more
warm hearted, and if people are kind
to them they like them and will do
good deal for them. don't mean to
say that it is right to talk about the
family outside, but sometimes a girl
I don't think, and it comes out before
she knows it. She don't mean any
harm. 1t is very hard for people to
keep things from girls. they are
around all the time, and see and hear
everything almost. They generally
like the gentleman of the house best,
because he don't interfere with them.
Girls don't say much about getting
married, even to each other. guess
the most of them think they would
have just as hard work then as
they do now, and poorer place to do it
in. When they do marry sometimes
they do well, but often they have to
get place again after while. Some
times girls 60 to the country with a
family and before they come back get
engaged to marry farmer. That
generally does very well.
Girls do not care much to take
secondhand clothing from a mistress
unless it is pretty nice. They may
take it., but they won't wear it.
Wages are better than they have
been for some years; good girl of all
work gets $12 month. If she can
make desserts she gets $14. A good
cook who can do everything gets $780,
and French cook $50. There is al
ways good help to be had if people
wants to pay for it. the trouble is,
some people think they can get a
good girl for most nothing 1t is
cheaper for them to pay more and get a
good one, for the cheap ones waste
and break more than their wages
are worth every month.
A good girl makes settled home.
She does not like to change round 1t
| 10 Ohi1 lHC pOOl tlstSl WHO HdHt "
change in hopes of lettering them
selves. think the girls would be bet
ter and take more interest in their
work if the ladies treated them better.
They generally get a miserable little
room at the top of the house with
scarcely anything in it, hot in summer
and cold in winter, and nobody takes
any interest in them, not even to see
that they keep their room clean. A
girl can't have any home feeling where
she is treated like that.
1t is very seldom that girl goes to
any amusement. When she does, it is
generally going to picnic. Girls
that live out are class by themselves.
They visit one another, but do not as
sociate with shop girls or girls that
work at sewing. They have it easy
when the family are away for the sum-
mer. There is scarcely anything to
do and they get half-wages. The
Epoch.